Immediate Family

About John Conant, of Devon

John Conant lived in the parish of East Budleigh, Devonshire, England, was probably born about the year 1520 at Gittisham, some ten or twelve miles north-east. John "was descended from ingenuous parents of Gittisham, near Honiton, whose ancestors for many generations had been fixed here but were most likely originally of French extraction from the Brittany Region of France." , according to The Life of Dr. John Conant, written in 1700. Gittisham (pronounced Gitsham) is a small parish on the river Oter, between Honiton and ottery St. Mary, and about fourteen miles from Exeter, the capital city of the country. In the 13th year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth (1571), he was assessed for goods of the yearly value of £4. In 1581 he was still taxed at East Budleigh, but in 1588 the tax was paid by his son, Richard, and it is probable that between those dates a transfer of property had taken place. In 1577, John Conant and Edmond Fowler were church wardens of East Budleigh. In those days the office of church-warden was of considerable importance, and only members of the leading families and such as were of recognized ability were elected to this important office.

There seems to be some confusion as to Roger's grandfather either John Conant of Devon or John Conant, of Honiton who are either brothers or the same person. In A history and genealogy of the Conant family in England and America ... By Frederick Odell Conant he states that the authentic genealogy beings with John Conant born abt 1520 died 1596.